The language in ancient Egypt
The ancient Egyptian language belongs to the family of the Afro-Asiatic languages, which is sometimes called the Semitic-Hamitic language group, which mostly left the Arabian Peninsula and settled in the regions of southwest Asia and North Africa. It certainly has a close relationship with a specific group of them, which is the group of Semitic languages in their distinctive structures, such as nominal sentences and their ringed sounds, such as Arabic, Amharic, Aramaic, and Hebrew. Hieroglyphs began to appear more than 3400 BC. As the first hieroglyphic signs appeared on memorial plaques and ivory cards. During that long lifetime of the ancient Egyptian language, we find that it has undergone many changes, which led researchers to divide its history into five major stages:
1) Old Egyptian: the name given to the oldest stage in the history of the language. Although the ancient Egyptian language began to appear more than 3400 BC, the early writings were names and short writings. So we can say that the Egyptian language in the ancient era really started from about 2600 BC with the beginning of the era of the old state and continued until 2100 BC. M. We will call this stage "the ancient Egyptian language". The famous texts of the pyramids were recorded according to the rules and spelling of this stage.
2) Middle Egyptian language: Middle Egyptian: This stage began to appear around 2100 BC. M, and it lasted about five hundred years as a language for speaking and writing, as it remained the basic stage in the history of the ancient Egyptian language as it represents the classical or era of linguistic eloquence in the history of the Egyptian language and it is the stage in which it reached the peak of its development and maturity and brought us out the finest literary pieces known to Egyptian literature. Whereas this stage, which was called "the medieval Egyptian language," represents the most complete picture reached by the ancient Egyptian language, it became the best topic to start with when studying the ancient Egyptian language. And the beginner student of the Egyptian language nowadays usually starts his first steps by learning the Egyptian language during this stage.
3) The late Egyptian language: this stage began to replace the medieval language stage as a language for speaking and writing after 1600 BC. M. It remained in use until the year 600 BC. This stage, which has been termed "the Egyptian language in the late era," is known in trade documents and letters from the Ramesside period, during which it is clear that there are many foreign vocabulary words in the Egyptian language.
It is noted here that the stages of the development of the Egyptian language in different eras have differed from the early stage of the history of Egyptian writing, at least in grammatical rules. The form of writing followed in the late stage of the ancient Egyptian language appeared in the texts before 1600 BC, but it did not appear in full form until after 1300 BC. M.
4) Demotic: It is an advanced stage of the language stage in the late era. The demotic period began to appear around the eighth century BC and its use continued until the fifth century AD.
5) Coptic writing: It is the last stage of the ancient Egyptian language, which came immediately after the demotic stage. Early evidence of this writing began to appear around the third century BC, and the language of communication among Egyptians remained for more than a thousand years.
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